Daljit Dhaliwal: The Making of a Name

All the news is good when it’s Daljit Dhaliwal was what David Letterman, famous American comedian and television host of the Late Show, said about this Asian dark-haired beauty that made a name for herself as anchor, correspondent and radio/TV host. Dhaliwal started her career as a field reporter for BBC Home TV News and then continued working for some of the most prestigious global news organizations. She has reported international and national events for TV and radio and has covered international and local U.K. news in the field. Dhaliwal is presently one of the news anchors for the Al-jazeera English news service which is based in Washington D.C. The Americans are fascinated by her; the media is pleased with her, therefore: you should know more about her to appreciate her achievements.

Early life and background

September 8, 1962 - Daljit Dhaliwal was born in London, England and she grew up in Southall, a place west of London. Her parents were followers of Punjab Sikh and they traced their lineage from the Dhaliwal Jat family in India. In 1953, her father immigrated to England from Sujapor Ludhiana Punjab, India. After he landed a factory job, he asked his wife to follow him and he continued working in the factory until his retirement.

Like most Indian parents, the Dhaliwat family believed that education is the key which opens the door for their children to better lives. Being the oldest of four siblings, she was given a good education in the Polytechnic of East London (now University of East London) where she completed a degree in philosophy & history, acquired masters in politics, history and economics and received a doctorate degree (honoris causa). All her academic achievements served as preparation for her future career.

Early Career

1990 – It is a fact that media people who began their career in big organizations are most likely to succeed. Take the case of Daljit; she started as a presenter for British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Home News and later as field reporter for BBC Home TV News covering the northern part of Ireland. Then she moved on as anchor in the Channel 4 News.

1995 – 2001. When Independent Television News (ITN) in UK started their World News, Daljit was a regular presenter of the evening bulletins until she transferred to a bigger network on the last month of 2001. She served as anchor for the World News for Public Television but it was later closed due to lack of corporate funding. By this period, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) changed from ITN World News to BBC World News to give their viewers late breaking live broadcast. She handled a program with Andrew Harvey; each of them alternating an hour all throughout the evening.

Dhaliwal decided to hire a New York- based agent to assist her in finding a U.S. based job. Aside from making this career move, she wanted to work in the U.S. to join her husband, American journalist Lee Patrick Sullivan who had been residing in the States since the end of 2001. Dhaliwal and Sullivan have since divorced.

2002 - Daljit was the co-host of James Rubin of the PBS show Wide Angle for its inaugural presentation and the rest of the first season.An American documentary television series, Wide Angle presents interesting world issues which was produced by Thirteen/WNET New York and broadcasted on PBS for worldwide distribution

Coming to America

2005 - Dhaliwal bid London adieu and relocated to Atlanta, Georgia where she hosted Cable News Network (CNN) International‘sYour World Today. She temporarilyreplacedKatty Kay (on maternity leave) as newsreader on BBC World in November 2005. She primarily co-anchored from its WNET's studios located in West 44th Street in Times Square, New York ; but she also reported from the BBC World News studios in Washington D.C. She was hired by CNN to anchor the network's Your World News and World Report programs. Although these shows were aired from Atlanta, both programs were not broadcasted in the States, and could only be viewed in English-speaking markets overseas.

Success with a capital S

Nobody can deny that Daljit Dhaliwal was on her way to the top – she has somewhat attained a cult status as news anchor for ITN on public television. This petite (5’2”) beauty was adored by American viewers, even the irrepressible comedian TV host, David Letterman sang praises about her and was among her legions of admirers. She started a mission of doing international media work for the United Nations and UNICEF by hosting important conferences in New York City and The Hague, Netherlands. Until today, she continues to work actively for the United Nations.

2006 – 2008 – She hosted Wide Angle from July 2006, but left the work after two seasons and was replaced by reporter Aaron Brown.

January 2008-October 2009 - She was solo anchor for PBS’s Foreign Exchange where her performance was highly acclaimed and she did a single episode for Global Watchin April, 2008.

She was anchor chair for PBS’ Worldfocus but she left the show and had her last broadcast in April 2010. In addition to filling in as anchor, Dhaliwal also reported from Singapore, India, the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania performing her role as correspondent for Worldfocus.

Dhaliwal resides in New York City. She married Lee Patrick Sullivan but their union lasted only for 2 years.

Historic moments as Anchor

Dhaliwal brought to TV viewers live breaking news, live events and interviews from lots of newsmakers and personalities. Among her historic moments as anchor are interviews with:

1. Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat

He was former President of the Palestinian Authority and Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) whose objective was to destroy the state of Israel.

2. Daily Show Host Jon Stewart

Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz is a well-known American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian. He is the host of The Daily Show,a satirical news program that airs on Comedy Central.

3. Rapper T.I.

His stage name is T.I. or T. I. P. but he was christened Clifford Joseph Harris, Jr. He is a popular American recording artist, film actor and music producer.

4. Opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto

She was one of Asia’s women leaders and chaired the Pakistan People Party (PPP), becoming Prime Minister for the first time in 1988. Removed from office 20 months later on grounds of corruption, she was re-elected in 1993 but was again removed in 1996 for the same grounds. She went into self-imposed exile in Dubai in 1998. Granted an amnesty and absolved of all corruption charges, she returned to Pakistan on October 18, 2007. She was to be the opposition’s leading candidate as prime Minister; however, she was assassinated on December 27, of the same year.

5. Russia’s Sergei Lavrov

Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov is the F0reign Minister of Russia. He served as Soviet diplomat and was Russia's ambassador to the United Nations from 1994 to 2004. He is multi-lingual as he speaks Russian, English, French and Sinhala.

6. Former U S Secretary of State Madeline Albright

Madeleine Korbel Albright is honored to be the first woman to become United States Secretary of State. U.S. Prewident Bill Clinton appointed her on December 5, 1996 and was unanimously confirmed by a U. S. Senate vote of 99-0. She was sworn in on January 23, 1997 as the 64th U.S. Secretary of State.

7. Senator George Mitchell

George John Mitchell, Jr., is U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Peace under the administration of President Barrack Obama. A Democrat senator, Mitchell served as the Senate Majority Leader from 1989 to 1995. He used to serve as chairman of many giant corporations.

8. Northern Ireland’s Gerry Adams

Gerry Adams is an Irish republican politician and Teachta Dála (TD - member of the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland) for the constituency of Louthfrom Belfast, Ireland. He is the president of Sinn Fein, the largest republican political party in Northern Ireland. From the late 1980s onwards, Adams was an important figure in the Northern Ireland Peace Process.

9. Israel’s Ehud Olmert

As Isreali politician and lawyer, he served as Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009, he was Cabinet Minister from 1988 to 1992 and from 2003 to 2006, and he served as Mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003

10. Shimon Perez

He is the ninth President of the State of Of Isreal. Peres served twice as eighth Prime Minister of Isreal and once as Interim Prime Minister, and has been a member of 12 cabinets in a political career spanning over 66 years.

11. Mexico’s Vicente Fox Quesada

Former politician was the President of Mexico from 2000 to 2006 and is concurrently co- President of the Centrist Democrat International. This is an international organization of the Christian democratic political parties.

12. Liberia’s Charles Taylor

Charles McArthur Ghankay Taylor served as the 22nd Liberian President, from 2 August 1997 until his resignation on 11 August 2003. When he was still president, he was accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his involvement in the Sierra Leone Civil War. At present, he is under the custody of the United Nations Detention Unit on the grounds of the Penitentiary Institution Haaglanden in The Hague . He is undergoing trial before the Special Court for Sierra Leone for his participation in the civil war.

13. Britain’s Jack Straw

John Whitaker Straw is a politician of the British Labor Party and has been a Member of Parliament (MP) for Blackburn since 1979. From 1997-2001, he served as Home Secretary; from 2001-2006, as Foreign Secretary and from 2006-2007 as Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons under Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair.

14. Former CIA head Robert James Woolsey Jr.

Robert James Woolsey Jr. is a foreign policy specialist and former Director of Central Intelligence and head of the Central Intelligence Agency from February 5, 1993 to January 10, 1995. He founded the Yale Citizens Eugene McCarthy for President (1967-68) and also served as its President. He was actively involved in the Vietnam anti- War Movement.

15. Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Mohammed Moussa

He is an Egyptian diplomat and has been the Secretary-General of the Arab League. The Arab League, organized in 2001, is composed of 22-member forum representing Arab states. Amr Moussa announced that he would be running as a presidential candidate on March 1, 2011.

These are some of the most important events covered by the international media and Daljit Dhaliwal was among those writers who reported extensively about the conflicts which took place. Daljit was able to interview some important personalities who gave their input on how to resolve these conflicts.She was able to bring these events right to the doorsteps of her viewers.

The Iraq War was also known as the Second Gulf War or Operation Iraqi Freedom. The military campaign started on March 20, 2003 when Iraq was invaded by a multinational force led by the United States and the Coalition.

After the invasion and the establishment of the Iraqi government, the insurgency started primarily targeting the Coalition armies. After many lives from both sides were claimed, the United States and Coalition have decided to withdraw their forces in the near future.

September 11, 2001 was a black day for the world in general and the Americans in particular. Who would ever think that the heart of America will be attacked by terrorists? The city of New York lost its World Trade Center, that colossal sight which meets your eyes as you approached the Statue of Liberty. With the thousands of lives and property wasted, the U.S. government increased their defenses. This event was the plug that opened U.S. decision to invade Afghanistan. The prime reasons were to remove the oppressive Taliban regime that refused to surrender the mastermind of the attack, Bin Laden.

On October 7, 2001, the War in Afghanistan began as the U.S. Armed Forces launched Operation Enduring Freedom together with its allies, the British Armed Forces and Afghan United Front (Northern Alliance) as their retaliation to the attack of September 11th. It also intended to destroy the Taliban and to end the use of Afghanistan as a base for terrorist operations. The United States pledged to eliminate Taliban rule and give the people a state of freedom.

The Balkan wars were continuous conflicts which led to the dissolution of the former Republic of Yugoslavia. This conflict lasted for 10 years, from 1991-2001 and affected six former Yugoslav republics. Allegiances of the different states were divided. Ethnicity, religion and politics were the main causes of the conflict. The war could be ended if all states would come up to a peaceful agreement.

An estimated 800,000 people in the tiny nation of Rwanda was wiped out in what is now called the Rwandan genocide. This horrible massacre occurred in 1994 and almost a million people were killed mercilessly. It was estimated that for a period of 100 days from the assassination of Juvenal Habyarimana on April 6 until the middle of July, at least 800,000 people were murdered. The reason was a complicated combination of ethnic competition and tension between the Hopi majority and the Tutsi minority. The magnitude of its destruction can even be compared to the Nazi’s Holocaust.

1. Daljit Dhaliwal is a perfect combination of beauty and brain. She earned an MA in politics, history, and economics from the University of London with honors and received an honorary doctorate degree from the same University.

2. In May 1999, she was named one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in the World.People, originally called People Weekly, is a weekly American magazine of the rich & not so the famous with human-interest stories. Published by Time, Inc., it boosts of a circulation of 3.75 million with expected revenue of $1.5 billion.

3. In August 1999, Esquire Magazine placed her on their Women We Love list. Esquire was founded in 1932 and published in the United States by the Hearst Corporation. It is a men’s magazine but it is also read by women.

4. Daljit Dhaliwal is considered as one of the most outstanding Indians selected as the Jewel of India. Called the woman of the world, she is placed along the line of India’s famous personalities as: Gururaj Deshpande, successful in Computer Networking; Gopi Hathiramani, a successful Crystal dealer; French Jayesh Manek, a top Stock market investor; Dr. Shrinivas Kulkarni, a renowned Astronomer and lots of others.

5. She was just recently nominated for the lead anchor women for World Focus. An award is given for the women of media whose achievements are commendable in this type of program.

6. She has a film to her credit where she appeared as herself. In fact, Daljit is considered as popular as other Indian movie stars in Bollywood.

7. Her viewers love her because of her pleasing personality and her talent. She has gained so many followers and admirers that they are even considered like a cult. Sightings of her whereabouts make good news.

There are many women in TV and radio who worked as news anchors, hosts, reporters and news correspondent but few can achieve what this bundle of talent and charm has accomplished.

continued working in the factory until his retirement.

Like most Indian parents, the Dhaliwat family believed that education is the key which opens the door for their children to better lives. Being the oldest of four siblings, she was given a good education in the Polytechnic of East London (now University of East London) where she completed a degree in philosophy & history, acquired masters in politics, history and economics and received a doctorate degree (honoris causa). All her academic achievements served as preparation for her future career.

Early Career

1990 – It is a fact that media people who began their career in big organizations are most likely to succeed. Take the case of Daljit; she started as a presenter for British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Home News and later as field reporter for BBC Home TV News covering the northern part of Ireland. Then she moved on as anchor in the Channel 4 News.

1995 – 2001. When Independent Television News (ITN) in UK started their World News, Daljit was a regular presenter of the evening bulletins until she transferred to a bigger network on the last month of 2001. She served as anchor for the World News for Public Television but it was later closed due to lack of corporate funding. By this period, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) changed from ITN World News to BBC World News to give their viewers late breaking live broadcast. She handled a program with Andrew Harvey; each of them alternating an hour all throughout the evening.

Dhaliwal decided to hire a New York- based agent to assist her in finding a U.S. based job. Aside from making this career move, she wanted to work in the U.S. to join her husband, American journalist Lee Patrick Sullivan who had been residing in the States since the end of 2001. Dhaliwal and Sullivan have since divorced.

2002 - Daljit was the co-host of James Rubin of the PBS show Wide Angle for its inaugural presentation and the rest of the first season.An American documentary television series, Wide Angle presents interesting world issues which was produced by Thirteen/WNET New York and broadcasted on PBS for worldwide distribution

Coming to America

2005 - Dhaliwal bid London adieu and relocated to Atlanta, Georgia where she hosted Cable News Network (CNN) International‘sYour World Today. She temporarilyreplacedKatty Kay (on maternity leave) as newsreader on BBC World in November 2005. She primarily co-anchored from its WNET's studios located in West 44th Street in Times Square, New York ; but she also reported from the BBC World News studios in Washington D.C. She was hired by CNN to anchor the network's Your World News and World Report programs. Although these shows were aired from Atlanta, both programs were not broadcasted in the States, and could only be viewed in English-speaking markets overseas.

Success with a capital S

Nobody can deny that Daljit Dhaliwal was on her way to the top – she has somewhat attained a cult status as news anchor for ITN on public television. This petite (5’2”) beauty was adored by American viewers, even the irrepressible comedian TV host, David Letterman sang praises about her and was among her legions of admirers. She started a mission of doing international media work for the United Nations and UNICEF by hosting important conferences in New York City and The Hague, Netherlands. Until today, she continues to work actively for the United Nations.

2006 – 2008 – She hosted Wide Angle from July 2006, but left the work after two seasons and was replaced by reporter Aaron Brown.

January 2008-October 2009 - She was solo anchor for PBS’s Foreign Exchange where her performance was highly acclaimed and she did a single episode for Global Watchin April, 2008.

She was anchor chair for PBS’ Worldfocus but she left the show and had her last broadcast in April 2010. In addition to filling in as anchor, Dhaliwal also reported from Singapore, India, the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania performing her role as correspondent for Worldfocus.

Dhaliwal resides in New York City. She married Lee Patrick Sullivan but their union lasted only for 2 years.

Historic moments as Anchor

Dhaliwal brought to TV viewers live breaking news, live events and interviews from lots of newsmakers and personalities. Among her historic moments as anchor are interviews with:

1. Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat

He was former President of the Palestinian Authority and Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) whose objective was to destroy the state of Israel.

2. Daily Show Host Jon Stewart

Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz is a well-known American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian. He is the host of The Daily Show,a satirical news program that airs on Comedy Central.

3. Rapper T.I.

His stage name is T.I. or T. I. P. but he was christened Clifford Joseph Harris, Jr. He is a popular American recording artist, film actor and music producer.

4. Opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto

She was one of Asia’s women leaders and chaired the Pakistan People Party (PPP), becoming Prime Minister for the first time in 1988. Removed from office 20 months later on grounds of corruption, she was re-elected in 1993 but was again removed in 1996 for the same grounds. She went into self-imposed exile in Dubai in 1998. Granted an amnesty and absolved of all corruption charges, she returned to Pakistan on October 18, 2007. She was to be the opposition’s leading candidate as prime Minister; however, she was assassinated on December 27, of the same year.

5. Russia’s Sergei Lavrov

Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov is the F0reign Minister of Russia. He served as Soviet diplomat and was Russia's ambassador to the United Nations from 1994 to 2004. He is multi-lingual as he speaks Russian, English, French and Sinhala.

6. Former U S Secretary of State Madeline Albright

Madeleine Korbel Albright is honored to be the first woman to become United States Secretary of State. U.S. Prewident Bill Clinton appointed her on December 5, 1996 and was unanimously confirmed by a U. S. Senate vote of 99-0. She was sworn in on January 23, 1997 as the 64th U.S. Secretary of State.

7. Senator George Mitchell

George John Mitchell, Jr., is U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Peace under the administration of President Barrack Obama. A Democrat senator, Mitchell served as the Senate Majority Leader from 1989 to 1995. He used to serve as chairman of many giant corporations.

8. Northern Ireland’s Gerry Adams

Gerry Adams is an Irish republican politician and Teachta Dála (TD - member of the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland) for the constituency of Louthfrom Belfast, Ireland. He is the president of Sinn Fein, the largest republican political party in Northern Ireland. From the late 1980s onwards, Adams was an important figure in the Northern Ireland Peace Process.

9. Israel’s Ehud Olmert

As Isreali politician and lawyer, he served as Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009, he was Cabinet Minister from 1988 to 1992 and from 2003 to 2006, and he served as Mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003

10. Shimon Perez

He is the ninth President of the State of Of Isreal. Peres served twice as eighth Prime Minister of Isreal and once as Interim Prime Minister, and has been a member of 12 cabinets in a political career spanning over 66 years.

11. Mexico’s Vicente Fox Quesada

Former politician was the President of Mexico from 2000 to 2006 and is concurrently co- President of the Centrist Democrat International. This is an international organization of the Christian democratic political parties.

12. Liberia’s Charles Taylor

Charles McArthur Ghankay Taylor served as the 22nd Liberian President, from 2 August 1997 until his resignation on 11 August 2003. When he was still president, he was accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his involvement in the Sierra Leone Civil War. At present, he is under the custody of the United Nations Detention Unit on the grounds of the Penitentiary Institution Haaglanden in The Hague . He is undergoing trial before the Special Court for Sierra Leone for his participation in the civil war.

13. Britain’s Jack Straw

John Whitaker Straw is a politician of the British Labor Party and has been a Member of Parliament (MP) for Blackburn since 1979. From 1997-2001, he served as Home Secretary; from 2001-2006, as Foreign Secretary and from 2006-2007 as Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons under Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair.

14. Former CIA head Robert James Woolsey Jr.

Robert James Woolsey Jr. is a foreign policy specialist and former Director of Central Intelligence and head of the Central Intelligence Agency from February 5, 1993 to January 10, 1995. He founded the Yale Citizens Eugene McCarthy for President (1967-68) and also served as its President. He was actively involved in the Vietnam anti- War Movement.

15. Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Mohammed Moussa

He is an Egyptian diplomat and has been the Secretary-General of the Arab League. The Arab League, organized in 2001, is composed of 22-member forum representing Arab states. Amr Moussa announced that he would be running as a presidential candidate on March 1, 2011.

These are some of the most important events covered by the international media and Daljit Dhaliwal was among those writers who reported extensively about the conflicts which took place. Daljit was able to interview some important personalities who gave their input on how to resolve these conflicts.She was able to bring these events right to the doorsteps of her viewers.

The Iraq War was also known as the Second Gulf War or Operation Iraqi Freedom. The military campaign started on March 20, 2003 when Iraq was invaded by a multinational force led by the United States and the Coalition.

After the invasion and the establishment of the Iraqi government, the insurgency started primarily targeting the Coalition armies. After many lives from both sides were claimed, the United States and Coalition have decided to withdraw their forces in the near future.

September 11, 2001 was a black day for the world in general and the Americans in particular. Who would ever think that the heart of America will be attacked by terrorists? The city of New York lost its World Trade Center, that colossal sight which meets your eyes as you approached the Statue of Liberty. With the thousands of lives and property wasted, the U.S. government increased their defenses. This event was the plug that opened U.S. decision to invade Afghanistan. The prime reasons were to remove the oppressive Taliban regime that refused to surrender the mastermind of the attack, Bin Laden.

On October 7, 2001, the War in Afghanistan began as the U.S. Armed Forces launched Operation Enduring Freedom together with its allies, the British Armed Forces and Afghan United Front (Northern Alliance) as their retaliation to the attack of September 11th. It also intended to destroy the Taliban and to end the use of Afghanistan as a base for terrorist operations. The United States pledged to eliminate Taliban rule and give the people a state of freedom.

The Balkan wars were continuous conflicts which led to the dissolution of the former Republic of Yugoslavia. This conflict lasted for 10 years, from 1991-2001 and affected six former Yugoslav republics. Allegiances of the different states were divided. Ethnicity, religion and politics were the main causes of the conflict. The war could be ended if all states would come up to a peaceful agreement.

An estimated 800,000 people in the tiny nation of Rwanda was wiped out in what is now called the Rwandan genocide. This horrible massacre occurred in 1994 and almost a million people were killed mercilessly. It was estimated that for a period of 100 days from the assassination of Juvenal Habyarimana on April 6 until the middle of July, at least 800,000 people were murdered. The reason was a complicated combination of ethnic competition and tension between the Hopi majority and the Tutsi minority. The magnitude of its destruction can even be compared to the Nazi’s Holocaust.

1. Daljit Dhaliwal is a perfect combination of beauty and brain. She earned an MA in politics, history, and economics from the University of London with honors and received an honorary doctorate degree from the same University.

2. In May 1999, she was named one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in the World.People, originally called People Weekly, is a weekly American magazine of the rich & not so the famous with human-interest stories. Published by Time, Inc., it boosts of a circulation of 3.75 million with expected revenue of $1.5 billion.

3. In August 1999, Esquire Magazine placed her on their Women We Love list. Esquire was founded in 1932 and published in the United States by the Hearst Corporation. It is a men’s magazine but it is also read by women.

4. Daljit Dhaliwal is considered as one of the most outstanding Indians selected as the Jewel of India. Called the woman of the world, she is placed along the line of India’s famous personalities as: Gururaj Deshpande, successful in Computer Networking; Gopi Hathiramani, a successful Crystal dealer; French Jayesh Manek, a top Stock market investor; Dr. Shrinivas Kulkarni, a renowned Astronomer and lots of others.

5. She was just recently nominated for the lead anchor women for World Focus. An award is given for the women of media whose achievements are commendable in this type of program.

6. She has a film to her credit where she appeared as herself. In fact, Daljit is considered as popular as other Indian movie stars in Bollywood.

7. Her viewers love her because of her pleasing personality and her talent. She has gained so many followers and admirers that they are even considered like a cult. Sightings of her whereabouts make good news.

There are many women in TV and radio who worked as news anchors, hosts, reporters and news correspondent but few can achieve what this bundle of talent and charm has accomplished.